Chapter Text
“Kitamura is making the serve!” One of the tennis teammates shout out. “It’s 30-15! She could win this!”
A beautiful brunette, dressed in a short tennis uniform has indeed made the serve. Her opponent hits it back. The brunette hits the ball after it bounces toward her. Both girls hit the ball back and forth about 5 times before the brunette hits the ball, hard enough to make it speed past her opponent, making it bounce two times and it results in her scoring another point. The game is over.
“Kaori Kitamura is the winner!” the referee says.
The female tennis club girls cheer for their top ace, Kaori Kitamura. Kaori wipes the sweat from her forehead and turns toward the audience, cheering for her and then at her teammates, who are running toward her to congratulate her. One in particular, which is a dark haired girl who has her hair tied in low pig-tails, approaches her and holds up a fist. Kaori giggles and gives a “bro-fist” gesture to her best friend and vice president of the club, Nozomi Hayagawa. They have won yet another tennis tournament. And it’s all thanks to their ace, Kaori. They can always count on her when it comes to them struggling to win.
Kaori herself is quite happy with the results. She’s the type that’s always hard at work, no matter what it is. Though, as a result, she is a student council member, and president of the Tennis Club. Those are very big responsibilities, but she doesn't mind as long as she balances those things to have some fun with her friends, especially with Nozomi.
After the team celebrates their victory, they all head back to the locker room to get changed and go home. Nozomi goes beside Kaori as they take off their tennis uniforms.
"You're stacked..." the stoic girl says as she casts a glance at her partner's body.
"I can say the same about you~" Kaori giggles.
Nozomi puts on her school uniform and adjusts her hair. "By the way...have you heard?"
"Heard about what?" Kaori asks.
"You remember that second year that just bailed from our club?" Nozomi asks. "Sasaki?"
"I'm sure she has her reasons," Kaori says. "Why would she leave our club?"
"That's what I would like to know," Nozomi says as she grabs her bag. "Well...nothing to worry about right now.”
"I'm sure I can convince her to come back," Kaori says.
"Please don't," Nozomi says. "The way I'm seeing things right now...let's just say she's a wild one."
"Hmmmm...maybe," Kaori rubs her chin in thought.
"Anyways, I have to go," Nozomi says. "See you later, Kaori.”
Kaori waves good-bye and finishes changing into her own school uniform. She starts to head home when she receives a phone call. It's her dear older step-sister Enka Miyamoto. She pushes the answer button and holds her phone up to her ear.
“Enka-onee-chan, hi!” she greets happily. “Guess what? We won our game yet again today!”
“That’s awesome to hear, Kaori!” Enka replies from the other line. “I’m so proud of you~!”
“I wish you could see it though,” Kaori says. “Why do you have to be so far away?”
“I have my own responsibilities to take care of, dear sister,” Enka replies. “Plus that, I just got done doing a job interview at a fast food place. They don’t pay much, but it’s the least I could do so I can pay the rent for my apartment.”
“Do your best, Onee-chan,” Kaori says. “I’m almost home myself. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Bye, little sis,” Enka says.
Kaori hangs up the phone and continues walking home. She and Enka are actually alike in appearance, but have different colored eyes. While Kaori’s are blue, Enka’s is violet. So that’s the only way to tell them apart. Their parents remarried some time ago, but they went overseas shortly afterwards, leaving the two sisters to fend for themselves. Since Enka is a college student, she used up most of her money to travel to another town and rent an apartment. As a result, she wanted to apply for a job to earn the money for the rent. As for Kaori, she’s responsible enough to live on her own. All in all, the sisters always contact each other whenever they could.
When Kaori gets home, she tosses her school bag aside and plops down on her bed, on her back, staring at the ceiling. The game has exhausted her, so she wants to go to bed early tonight. Before she showers, she reaches over and takes a look at a picture of her and Nozomi in their tennis outfits. Kaori was doing a “peace” sign while Nozomi was as stoic as ever. It was cute though. She smiles and traces her fingers on the picture before setting it down and sitting up. She gives a happy sigh and hops up from her bed.
“Yosh! Let’s get my body squeaky clean!” She hurries to the bathroom.
**Nozomi’s House**
The stoic girl gets out of the shower and is in the middle of drying her hair when she sees that her phone has gone off. She walks over and picks up the phone to see a text. She opens it up.
“Sensei…” she says quietly.
The text reads: “My Little Sweet Butterfly.”
Nozomi texts back: “Please don’t call me that.”
Sensei’s text comes back a few seconds later. “Oh, but I want to. After all, you’ve have yet to grow your wings, have you not~?”
Nozomi texts the sensei back. “I still…need some time. I’m not at that stage yet.”
“Come by my office tomorrow so we can discuss more~”
“…Fine.”
“That’s my Butterfly. Good night~ <3”
“…Night..”
Nozomi puts her phone in the charger and puts on her night clothing. She climbs into bed and turns off the light. But she just stares at the ceiling with an arm on her forehead. She lets out a soft sigh.
“Kaori…” she whispers before she rolls to her side and her eyes flutter shut.
**Next Day**
“Haaah…another great day~!” Kaori says as she enters the school. “Where’s Nozomi? Maybe she overslept?”
“Uwaaaah! You actually got one!?” one girl squeals.
“I’m so jealous, girl!” another female says.
“Sasaki-san, that is the most wonderful bag I’ve ever seen!” another girl says.
Kaori gasps and turns toward a group of girls gathered around the second year student with a polka-dotted bag, colored in pink and white.
“I fooled Kaori-sempai into thinking I hated it~” Sasaki says. “What a gullible little thing~”
Kaori cannot believe it. She was bragging about a bag like that just the other day before the tournament and wanted to buy it since she saved up her allowance. It was on sale, too.
“What else do you have that Kaori-san doesn’t?” one of the girls say.
“I’m glad you asked~” Sasaki flips her long, gray hair in a fabulous way. “You see…I got myself a boyfriend. Look at this~” She holds up her phone to show a picture of a very handsome young man with short dark brown hair. “He’s my ultimate hottie~”
“Wowwww! You got one of the most popular guys here at this school!” one of the girls squeals. “What’s his name~?”
“His name is Ryou~” Sasaki says. “And let’s just say…it was love at first sight~”
“Ohhh, Sasaki-san, you are amazing~!” the three girls squeal in excitement.
“U-umm…Sasaki?” Kaori manages to speak up. “What was that just now?”
“Ahhh, Sempai~” Sasaki struts over toward the older brunette. “You’re just in time. Here, let’s talk in private. I’ll talk to you later, girls~”
“See you later, Sasaki-san~!” The trio of girls chorus and they turn and leave, squealing with excitement.
Sasaki happily waves to them and then turns to Kaori. “Did you like what you heard~?”
“I…I don’t understand you,” Kaori says. “Didn’t you say you hated that bag? And where did you get a boyfriend all of a sudden?”
“I fooled you, Sempai,” Sasaki says. “And I just wanted to be the cool girl. Since you seem to be more popular than I am. I wanted to be the cooler one, yet YOU take all the spotlight.”
“I…I never asked for this, though,” Kaori says.
“Whatever,” Sasaki crosses her arms. “It was MY time to shine and you stole it. So now, I wanted to make your life a living hell by taking the things you have.”
“But I never had a boyfriend,” Kaori says.
“Not yet,” Sasaki wiggles a finger. “I’m very sure you’ll get one soon. And once I find out about it, I’ll steal yours as well. And then…steal your position at the tennis club~”
“That’s never going to happen!” Kaori says. “I’ll get a lover of my own when I’m ready! And you’re never going to take my position! I earned it…you didn’t. Is that why you bailed out on the club?”
“Perhaps,” Sasaki shrugs. “I gotta go. But I WILL make your life miserable…one way or another. Just you wait, Kaori Kitamura-sempai.”
She walks away, her medium length hair swaying at the movement. Kaori frowns and crosses her arms under her bosom.
“Ami Sasaki,” she says to herself. “She’s…really dangerous. Nozomi warned me about her and she was right. I’d better stay away from her.”
Turning around the opposite way, she hurries to her first class.